Game 1 Box Score / Game 2 Box Score

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — Wednesday afternoon was the Day of the Hitter for the Saint Mary's University and Bethel baseball teams.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, their hitters only showed up for half of the day.

The Cardinals belted out 17 hits – including a pair of home runs — and scored a season-high 11 runs in beating Bethel 11-7 in the opening game of their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader.

As hot as the SMU bats were in Game 1 however, was as cold as they were in Game 2.

Bethel hammered four SMU pitchers for 15 hits — and a season-high 18 runs — as the Royals earned a split with an 18-0 Game 2 victory.

"Today belonged to the hitters," said SMU coach Nick Whaley, whose team snapped a season-high three-game losing streak with the win in the opener. "It's a small park and the wind was blow out — perfect conditions for a lot of hits and runs."

Which the Cardinals and Royals so graciously provided.

Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.) and Nick Winecke (St. Paul, Minn.) each launched two-run, Game 1 home runs — Knudsen's as part of SMU's five-run second inning and Winecke's in the Cardinals' three-run fifth — while Knudsen, Matt Rink (Rochester, Minn.) and David Krieger (Mendota Heights, Minn.) added doubles to pace the 17-hit attack.

Bethel picked up a pair of first-inning runs off SMU starter Matt Popek (Eagan, Minn.), but the Cardinals responded with five runs in the second and another in the top of the third. The Royals cut the lead to 6-4 in the bottom of the third and the two teams traded fourth inning runs, before SMU broke the game open with three in the fifth and one in the seventh.

"It may not seem like it, with the way the offenses dominated, but Matt Popek pitched an outstanding first game," said Whaley of his sophomore right-hander, who went the distance, scattering 12 hits to push his record to 4-1 on the season. "He never got rattled and just kept battling. It was a gutsy performance."

After giving Popek more than enough run support in the opener, the Cardinals' bats fell silent in Game 2, as SMU managed just four singles off Bethel's Justin Haddock. The Royals, meanwhile, continued to pad their MIAC home run lead, belting five in the second game — and eight on the day — to give them a conference-leading 23 home runs in nine MIAC games.

Bethel jumped on SMU starter Dan Cosgrove (South St. Paul, Minn.) and the rest of the Cardinals staff early, and often, scoring five runs in the first innings — and the Royals didn't let up, adding four more in the second, three in the third and six in the fourth.

"It was a tough day to be a pitcher," said Whaley, whose team returns to action Saturday, playing host to St. Thomas in a 1 p.m. doubleheader. "We did a lot of good things today — I thought we swung the bat pretty well, especially in that first game. Now we've got to put these games behind us and get ready for Saturday."